A few days ago, a fully working N64 emulator appeared on Xbox One. As I’m sure we all expected, said emulator has now been taken down.
A Microsoft rep told GameSpot that the app – known as Win64e10 – ‘violated policy’. Fair enough, considering the idea of Nintendo games appearing on an Xbox console is against everything we’ve ever known.
The rep continued:
We love to see passion for gaming, and enjoy supporting all types of game and application innovation. While Win64e10 was initially available in the Xbox Store, further review showed it violated policy and is no longer available.
Folks may remember that a similar situation occurred almost immediately after Xbox One opened up its doors to Windows UWP – A NES emulator appeared on the console and was taken down almost immediately.
I guess we live in a world where developers and publishers think you should pay for the games you play – madness.
The description on the Xbox Store for the N64 emulator read:
[win64e10] is the most advanced N64 emulator for Windows 10. Play your favorite N64 games on your PC, tablet, Windows Phone, and Xbox One. You need Windows 10 Mobile to play on your phone.
The emulator could play all N64 games, and had support for 360/One controllers, as well as a cheat mode, and the ability to use save states.
Still, these days you can pick up an N64 for about £30 if you really try, and sometimes you just can’t beat the real thing.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.